Citizens taking action ~ Vancouver, Lower Mainland, and beyond.


Monday, October 6, 2008

More handwriting on the wall

This week Canadian Springs made big headlines in Ontario by announcing that they will charge refundable deposits on bottles they deliver to customers. The new program is rolling out in Ontario, BC and the Maritime provinces.

It won't make much of a splash here or in the Maritimes. We already have refundable deposits on water bottles.

But Canadian Springs is really rocking the boat in Ontario. The beverage industry there has been fighting refundable deposits for twenty years. Ontario is still the only province in Canada besides Manitoba where consumers don't get a cash reward for recycling.

The defection of Canadian Springs is one more sign that the tide is going out for the shaky enterprise of collecting bottles and cans in the Blue Box.

Why send diesel trucks door to door to collect bubbles of air, when you can support a local hockey team with a bottle drive instead?

Pic: Eco-friendly graffiti in Greece


1 comment:

Nancy Poh said...

I have received so many email alerts against re-using plastic bottles that one should consider looking at bottoms of plastic wares for the recycling numbers and decide against using them to hold stuff that we put in our mouth. That should push the call to re-use glass.